Taft High School celebrates turnaround

Dead-end school has become high-tech star

Nov. 7, 2010

Teacher Dan Woodly works with students Pleze Davis and Darnasia McKinney in a computer networking class at the Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School in Westwood. / The Enquirer/Gary Landers

Why: Taft high school is the first high school in the district in more than 25 years to earn the coveted Blue Ribbon status. Of the more than 130,000 public and private schools in the country, only 304 won blue ribbon status this year. The award honors schools that are academically superior or have made significant improvement in closing the achievement gap.

About Taft: Over the years, Taft's graduation rate climbed from 21 percent in 2000 to 95.2 percent in 2009. The school has an Excellent rating from the Ohio Department of Education and 100 percent of seniors passed all parts of the Ohio Graduation Test in 2010.

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Only one in five students who passed through the classrooms at Taft High School eight years ago ended up in a graduation gown.

Educators considered the school among the worst high schools in Ohio. Test scores and graduation rates were abysmal. Nearly a quarter of the students didn't even bother to go to school.

Calls sounded to just shut it down.

Those who remember the old Taft don't sugarcoat their thoughts.

"It was an insane asylum," said teacher Jocelynne Jason, who's worked there for more than a decade.

On a recent October day, about a dozen juniors and seniors edited video clips in a well-equipped computer lab. Taft is now a technology school and the interactive media course is one of three technology focuses that students can pursue.

In the cafeteria, about 20 students mulled math and English questions with Cincinnati Bell volunteers during a tutoring session for the Ohio Graduation Test. Every student in the tutoring program passed the test.

Other areas show similar results:

Graduation rates have skyrocketed from about 21 percent to more than 95 percent.

Once non-existent extracurricular programs thrive - the football team made the playoffs this year for the first time in history.

This spring the school will move from its temporary location in East Westwood back to its old site in the West End where the district has built a state-of-the-art building.

To top it all off, not only did the school earn an Excellent rating on its Ohio Report Card this year - it's highest rating ever - it also won a prestigious National Blue Ribbon award, the first CPS high school in more than 25 years to do so.

A celebration is planned Tuesday.

So how did the high school, once considered a dead-end dropout factory, become one of the district's best schools? Those who've lived it say they're not magicians, they just had some good leadership, a good plan, good partners and a bit of luck.

Some say there was another factor, something less tangible: People started caring.

High-tech boost

Taft High School, historically located on Ezzard Charles Drive in the West End, began to decline in the 1990s. "I was so embarrassed," said Cassidy, recalling his first tour of the building during the 2000-2001 school year.

"My God, as a taxpayer in Ohio and Cincinnati can we really have this as a place that we call a center of education?" said Cassidy. "It was literally on any metric the worst performing high school, not only in Cincinnati but in the state of Ohio."

Anthony Benton, a 2009 Taft graduate, recalled growing up near the school. "All you heard about Taft was a lot of bad things," he said. "A bunch of fights. Grades were horrible."

At the time, the school district was in the middle of a redistricting plan.

Most expected it to shut down Taft. But the community lobbied for it to be restructured instead.

Anthony Smith, a Taft graduate himself, was recruited from a CPS middle school to be principal.

In addition to Smith, the school gained a new technology focus and a strong partnership with Cincinnati Bell which provides students with everything from regular tutoring to cell phones to $20,000 in scholarships.

The district decided to turn Taft into a technology-focused school. Smith and a group of his teachers visited the best technology programs in the country and crafted a program for Cincinnati.

The school was renamed the Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School. All students take basic technology classes. Juniors and seniors enter the "Senior Institute" where they choose a specific emphasis such as web design or information technology.

The restructuring was a huge factor in the turnaround, educators say, because the school began attracting students who wanted high-tech careers. It became a destination school, rather than the default school.

Taft remains one of the few technology schools in the country that has open enrollment, meaning kids don't have to pass a test or meet academic requirements to get in, said Turner.

About relationships

Around the time of the restructuring, a fortuitous seating arrangement at a Cincinnati Business Committee lunch provided the final piece of the turnaround puzzle.

Smith happened to sit next to Cincinnati Bell CEO Jack Cassidy. The pair struck up a conversation about the school.

"He said, 'Hey, I'd really like to partner with you,' " Smith said.

So the pair crafted a plan. They held community forums to get feedback on the idea of a technology school. Cincinnati Bell volunteers cleaned and repainted the entire interior of the building in the summer of 2001 to celebrate the redesign.

The company now provides tutoring, scholarships and internships for students. It set up an academic incentive program in which it gives free laptops and cell phones to all juniors and seniors who earn a 3.3 grade point average and wires their homes with broadband Internet.

Cassidy, who attends the football games and gives all the students his cell phone number, admits the partnership is as much about business as altruism. It creates new customers and future employees.

Smith said the relationships forged through the partnership are more valuable than any amount of money.

"It's all about relationships," said Smith. "When kids believe that you really want them to be successful, they'll do whatever you want them to do."

Not magic

Taft's turnaround wasn't magic, Smith said. It took hard work.

But in a day and age where turnaround schools generally involve a staff overhaul and expensive help from outside experts, Taft has managed to right itself with little guidance or interest from the outside world. Its staff talks to other districts looking to turn around their own high schools. It was recently featured in Education Week and the CBS Evening News.

Smith said Taft's success comes down to a lot of people who cared an awful lot, and who worked tirelessly on a turnaround plan with the attitude that failure was not an option.

"When you take on this education thing, you have to be serious about it," said Smith. "If you mess up kids, you can't go back and fix them."

TAFT: Then and now

The Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School has improved dramatically on many fronts since becoming a technology-focused school and partnering with Cincinnati Bell in the 2001-2002 school year.